prices. Corn costs for many ethanol producers and other end users may also be below spot

values to date as a substantial portion of this year’s crop appears to have been forward priced.

The continuing wide spread between reported monthly prices received by producers and

substantially higher cash market bids can be explained by farmer deliveries of corn priced last

year when prices were well below current levels.

Corn food, seed, and industrial use is also projected higher for 2010/11 due to rising prospects

for production of sweeteners and starch. Corn used to produce high fructose corn syrup

(HFCS) is projected 15-million-bushels higher reflecting strong shipments of the corn-based sweetener to Mexico. Demand for HFCS has grown in Mexico as sugar exports to the United States have increased. Corn used for starch is also raised 5 million bushels based on the

improving outlook for industrial output in the United States.

Ending corn stocks for 2010/11 are projected at 675 million bushels. This month’s projections

lower the stocks-to-use ratio to 5.0 percent, the same as in 1995/96—the last time ending

stocks fell to multi-year lows. Corn prices rose sharply in the spring and summer of 2006 to

ration usage ahead of the 2006 harvest. The 2010/11 marketing-year average farm price is

projected at $5.05 to $5.75 per bushel, up from $4.90 to $5.70 per bushel last month.